Flight of the Navigator | VFXcool
Why Hacker News recommends it
Strongly recommended as a detailed, entertaining history of 1980s CGI and film techniques, including the role of the Foonly F1.
What it is
Captain Disillusion's VFXcool episode, led by Alan Melikdjanian, takes a 41-minute nostalgic look at how the visual effects of Flight of the Navigator were made. It covers early computers, motion control, in-camera effects and practical crafts.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec dTal · 2021-10 · on “One-of-a-kind computer systems of which only one unit was ever produced”
Missing from this list: the Foonly F1, used to create the animations in Tron (1982) and later to render the spaceship in Flight of the Navigator (1986) - of note as the first use of reflection mapping in a motion picture. I highly recommend this video on the making of Flight of the Navigator. Apart from being highly entertaining, it also goes into stunning detail on all the special effects, in particular how exactly one goes about putting CGI into film in the 1980s (as the narrator points out - Final Cut Pro hadn't been invented yet!). [this video]
Strong rec askiiart · 2023-01 · on “The Foonly F1 Computer (2011)”
See also: Flight of the Navigator | VFXCool - Captain Disillusion A fantastic video detailing the VFX of Flight of the Navigator. [this video]
Strong rec dTal · 2023-01 · on “The Foonly F1 Computer (2011)”
This comprehensive video on the special effects of Flight of the Navigator, including the role of the Foonly F1, is one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen on YouTube. I cannot recommend it enough: [this video] <edit: I see that someone else has already posted this video. However, I'm going to leave this comment up because holy shit watch it >
Recommends lowdest · 2021-06 · on “Rest In Peace, John. I was lucky to know you so deeply”
Slightly off topic, but Captain Disillusionment did a great video recently on Flight of the Navigator: [this video]
Cites Noumenon72 · 2025-04 · on “Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)”
The pylon holding up the ship out of frame reminded me of the Captain Disillusion video on how they did the ship in Flight of the Navigator. [this video]
Cites Kye · 2025-11 · on “The 'Toy Story' You Remember”
For Flight of the Navigator (1986) they sent renders of the ship directly to film because the system could only hold one frame at a time. [this video]